ZERO:

The No. 5 ranked Crossbone and the tailor and specialized terror agent of the coalition. A strange female being of unknown origins with an appearance similar to a teenage girl, but with razor sharp, needle-like fingers, she comes from the ACA Wiki universe, a website akin to the SCP foundation focusing on the exploits of the Anomaly Control Agency, a group dedicated to finding strange anomalies that go against the usual state of things and keeping them contained and controlled so they cannot cause mass chaos. She was discovered in a small, out of the way Alaskan town after a massive blackout, having used her strange abilities to turn the town into a chaotic landscape and the vast majority of its inhabitants into strange, female, doll-like beings which will henceforth be referred to as Threadborn, which she had rampaging across the village, out of anger that the town refused to offer her shelter during the cold winter night. She and her minions were taken into custody by the ACA and were locked up inside a specialized containment center, her only interactions with the outside world being interviews with researchers, interactions with prisoners sent in to see what she's capable of, and rarely during containment breaches where she was free to attempt to escape - but failed every time. This was all the way back in the 50s, and so she remained for decades, never aging or seeing the world outside her prison, leaving her terribly depressed as to her life state and extremely vindictive towards the people who captured her. Her containment center was in the midst of a massive containment breach when she got the letter inviting her to the Calling, and while she could attempt to escape here, she remembered all her numerous failed attempts and decided to instead place her faith in the letter that seemed to have been delivered to her by fate - and soon found herself in a world bigger than not only her cell, but the world that contained the cell itself...

Zero's personality is strange and honestly quite creepy, befitting the source material she came from. She has a constantly shy, fidgety demeanor, and can often be seen twitching oddly whenever she's completely idle, and is often quite scared of those who come near her, even when they are blatantly weak to her or not a threat - and unfortunately, when it comes to responses, she usually chooses "fight" over flight, meaning simply getting near her is often enough to set her off and get her to try and attack or convert you. She has an extreme inferiority complex and constantly bemoans that she's ugly, stupid, a failure, etc. and is prone to suddenly crying, though in truth she mostly does this to try and get sympathy from others - either genuinely or to lure them in for a trap. Her shyness however is rather genuine, and she often speaks with a genuine stutter whenever meeting people, and is prone to blushing regularly, which, given her black blood, tints her face a dark color whenever she does so. She loves cute things and tries not to hurt things she considers cute - mostly children, who were oftentimes the only surviving witnesses of any attacks she participated in back in her home story, though if a child upsets or offends her she will attack and berate it like anything else. She has an extremely vindictive side to her personality where she takes everything she can even slightly interpret as an insult to heart, as seen above, and when feeling especially angry or upset she will bite her fingers, sharpening them in doing so, which usually creates a creepy scraping sound. She has a great love of fashion and serves as the tailor among the Crossbones, having helped Akane with coming up with the basic aesthetics of the group and is the one who crafted all their unique outfits and accessories. She enjoys tailoring just for fun at times and often makes an excess of outfits for all sorts of purposes, though she basically only ever wears nightgowns and her Crossbone uniform.

Zero basically completely lacks a moral compass, which combined with how vindictive she is creates a messy combo, where she shows no empathy towards others when she does horrible things to them, but becomes angry and awful whenever she even slightly believes that she or her friends have been hurt or slighted in any way, and responds with revenge that can be considered quite excessive. As well, she doesn't see anything innately wrong with her or her friends hurting others, despite how she hates her or her friends being hurt, and offers no sympathy or remorse in any way for her victims or the victims of her comrades, and even seems to take sick pleasure in transforming people into Threadborn. She sees the Crossbones as true friends, regardless of how well she knows them, rationalizing that since they're on the same team, they must all be the best of friends, and has particularly good relations with Cross, who she often calls "big sis", and Roa, who she often calls "little sis', and enjoys spending time and playing with Roa in particular. Despite her vindictiveness, she does not consider all the Crossbones' enemies to be people she should hate, and even sees some specific enemies like Meme and Popanda as good friends rather than enemies, and will even create outfits for them now and then just for fun, but on the same merit, she considers some of the Crossbones' enemies to be truly worthy of hate, especially Jade and Amber after their defeat of Akane, whom Zero looks up to immensely. Yes indeed, Akane is by far the Crossbone Zero respects and admires the most - even if it's not quite towards Roa's level - as Akane saw her being attacked by a group of other contestants and killed them all to save her, before offering Zero a chance to join her organization. Despite the fact all Threadborn are creepy, zombie-like creatures which just laugh endlessly, she ascribes to each of them unique personalities and fun traits in her head, even if they rarely if ever show behaviors which could match them, as well as giving them names just for fun. She despises the ACA and groups similar to them, and often asks Akane if they can attack ACA outposts inside the calling, which Akane will indulge if information indicates it's not too intensely guarded. Her name comes from how she was only ever referred to with the designation ACA-0973, and she came to be attached to the "0" at the front.

Zero's powers are varied and are all forms of reality warping - possibly why she's such close friends with Cross - mostly based around her claw-like, razor sharp fingers. They come in a variety of forms, but the most prominent are her ability to transform people into Threadborn, creepy, female, doll-like beings which constantly giggle and attack anything Zero wants them to attack, and are extremely durable (though vulnerable to cutting edges and fire), carving the environment around her to create strange, checker pattern-filled voids which link to each other, and summoning strange, black orbs covered in technicolor pink and purple patterns which ambiently fly at nearby movement. She does not come from a combat focused setting and as such did not come to the Calling with any major combat skill, hence why she almost died had it not been for Akane's interference, but is slowly being trained by Cross, Absynth and Flora in the ways of battle, though it's somewhat slow going, meaning that while she's not helpless against more skilled enemies, she's not especially advantaged either. Her body is strangely durable has a strange bouncing effect when it hits anything. Her Void Eye has the power of Imprisonment and can summon massive ribbons from her voids that, once wrapped around an enemy, are almost impossible to undo unless she specifically wills it or is knocked out. Her named rank among the Crossbones is Puppeteer and her symbol is a skull made up of several arms grasping around each other, the bottom-most limbs' clawed hands making up the teeth.

Zero's body is entirely white in coloration - almost like a porcelain doll, while her fingers end in razor sharp points rather than nails, though her feet are otherwise normal. She's rather short and she has extremely messy, long white hair, which over hides her eyes from a distance, which are pale blue in coloration, and the skin surrounding her eyes is blackened and somewhat ringed in appearance, and her lips are a little chapped. She is usually hunched in appearance, making her seem even shorter than she'd look normally. Her outfit takes the form of a beautiful, gothic lolita dress that is purple in coloration, with a prominent frilled black portion around her shoulders that leads into a black cross design around the chest of her chest, and her sleeves are baggy and poofy around the upper arms and shoulders, and more free and flowing around her forearms. She has a ribbon around her waist that is black in coloration, and is neatly tied at her back with a skull-like pin stuck through the middle of it. Her skirt is flowing and long, though it's somewhat shorter at the front, and is stuck full of various small pins near the bottom, with four large, silver pins around the very back which look like Crossbone crosses with a large spike at the bottom, dragging along the ground as she walks and floating through the air as she leaps. Various strange motes of darkness float around her at all times, and she doesn't wear any shoes, but does have prominent striped black and purple socks, at least one of which is always a little undone.

Her invitation read: "Poor "Zero," the girl locked away in a birdcage, we hereby invite you to the Calling, the festival which crosses all worlds. Should you partake of our offer, you shall have a chance to meet new friends, create new masterpieces, find shelter from a cruel world, and, most importantly, escape this prison you have been trapped within - once and for all. Sign your name below and the door shall open for you."

ABSYNTH:

The No. 6 Crossbone and their powerhouse. Hailing from the Black Pearls action manga series, focusing on the exploits of a family of superhuman fighters who are regularly menaced with arc-based villains in a strange sci-fi fantasy world, extremely similar to DBZ. Absynth in particular is a member of the race known as Ethynians, a race of humanoid aliens with cat-like traits who have an extremely warlike and savage culture based around strength and martial might, having once been planet-conquering warriors themselves until they eventually met their match facing the Gryllz Empire, an empire lead by the extremely powerful alien named Gryllz, who enslaved them as he is wont to do with all races his empire faces, making them his personal elite soldiers, a role they carry to this day. Absynth in particular is effectively an Ethynian runt - an Ethynian who while still stronger, faster, and tougher than almost any human, she is basically the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Ethynians - a mere foot soldier among a race of planet-killing titans and thus mocked and scorned for her weakness relative to her superiors - both Ethynian and not. As such, she's always resented both her own people and the empire that's enslaved them, and has dreamy of the chance to get stronger and show all her naysayers who's the real boss. Thus, when a strange note promised her just that, she accepted it without any delay, and soon found herself enrolled in the esteemed Calling.

Absynth's personality is extremely rough, arrogant, hostile, and simply rude - she has a completely bad attitude and isn't ashamed of the fact in the least, and has almost no respect for anybody who can't beat her in a fight - which is why the only Crossbone she respects is Akane, who did exactly that to earn her loyalty - as such Absynth is extremely loyal to Akane, as Akane proved herself to be Absynth's better in the duel when they first met, and unlike her past superiors, doesn't look down on her for her weakness and instead sees it as simply an opportunity for Absynth to grow to fill the void with strength instead. She also has reasonably good relationships with Cross due to their similarly rude and smug attitudes and Roa, since nobody hates Roa, which is especially unique since Absynth otherwise considers children to be annoying pains who can't even give her a good fight - and thus doesn't see the point of trying to kill or attack them. She likes fighting, though she also enjoys killing those who can't resist in droves, so it's possible her refusal to kill children might be some tiny droplet of morality in such an otherwise cruel individual. However, whenever she's faced with somebody who can actually challenge or hurt her, she instead displays great anger, which usually graduates into outright fear towards the enemy, and will even flee if she believes that she stands no chance against an enemy - a trait that was seen as weakness by her fellow Ethynians in the past. However, if ordered to stand and fight by Akane, she'll listen, mostly out of respect, but also out of fear of what Akane will do to her if she disobeys a direct order. While she isn't outright cruel to her fellow Crossbones, she is a little bit of a bully, even if only to a mild degree, and will often tease Black Powder and Zero when she can, as well as being easy to get into arguments with with a Kreuz and Harvest, and overall she will sometimes disobey orders from Harvest or Cross to follow her own whims, though she will never be insubordinate to Akane.

Absynth is extremely envious of her fellow Ethynians, and this extends into the Calling itself - she is chiefly motivated by a desire to eventually become stronger and more powerful like she feels she deserves to be. In particular, she's envious of the proud and haughty Gyn, prince of the Ethynians and by far their strongest native member as of the present, only surpassed by [GOGU], a traitor Ethynian who instead fights for an alien planet, who Absynth considers strange and out there overall, as the idea of fighting for anyone other than yourself or those more powerful than you is completely alien to her. She dreams of one day slaying the royal Ethynians and freeing them from Gryllz, so she can become the new Ethynian warlord and take them on a warpath across the universe just like the good old days, with her of course at the top - but in the end she recognizes this is an unlikely fantasy. She is extremely arrogant and often refuses to accept the idea that she can be beaten by those who have a lower Innate Strength (power level) than her, especially as her scanner only records the IS of others and can't factor conceptual power into its readings - meaning she often loses when faced against those who have more unique, reality-altering, or otherworldly abilities, as she acts like they're completely helpless against her when they're actually not. She's somewhat of a glutton though it's more likely that she simply needs to eat a lot to regain energy from her use of powerful Chi blasts, which are of course her main fighting style, as she's too weak and lazy to find more efficient ways to recuperate like training - and doesn't have access to Leng Root to instantly restore stamina like her enemies from her home world do. Despite her own great arrogance, she despises arrogant or even mildly confident people, especially when they're beating her, to the point of "Don't get cocky!" being essentially her most common catchphrase, though this drive is ultimately a weakness in the long run, as it causes her to get worked up against smug or confident opponents and think even less logically than she would otherwise, sometimes leading her to fail against even enemies she should have beaten. It is for these reasons that Akane gave her one of the more valuable Void Eyes even if it probably would have been better suited to a stronger individual - to make up for these innate flaws in her personality.

Being an Ethynian, Absynth is extremely strong and frankly invincible to most if not all worlds with more realistic human potential - bullets, rockets, and explosives each bounce off her and she can instantly send a person's head flying with just a firm slap or well-placed kick, and a strong stance can crack the earth around her and release a shock wave that can knock people off her feet. However, in Ethynian terms she's frankly weak as sin, and lost badly to Akane when they fought. Nonetheless, she is still quite strong and effectively instantly ruins any attempt by contestant parties lacking dedicated powerhouses to try and fight the Crossbones, as she can easily eliminate any target - even ones which could be seen as top seeds in their world if they're unprepared, such as Nightshade. Her Chi color is chartreuse and she is prone to releasing barrages of Chi blasts, beams from a single hand, creating orbs which linger in the air briefly before falling down and exploding, and finally her iconic attack, Toxic Ring, which releases a set of 6 walls of chi energy, each thicker and more intense than the last, at the cost of badly exhausting her. In addition, being an Ethynian, she gains an increase in power whenever she survives near-death circumstances. Her Void Eye has the power of Evolution and makes it so that whenever she is defeated, she gains some resistance to whatever was used to defeat her, and this can stack over time. Her named rank in the Crossbones is Barbarian and her symbol appears as a stylized crosshair taking the form of a cross emerging from a skull with circular, scope-like eyes.

Her body shape is overall quite muscular, and while not exactly especially tall, she isn't short - generally she's a little above average. Her chiseled skin is tan in coloration and covered in various minor scars and blast marks, particularly under her void eye (which is on the left) where there is a prominent, cross-shaped scar from her battle with Akane. Her non void eye is simple with a black pupil an dno visible iris, the pupil in question being quite small and vertically shaped, giving her a harsh look, while her hair is spiky and black, with three prominent "spikes" as the central element, one quite large and the others, which are on each side of the large one, being smaller and thinner - these spikes repeat backwards into a long sort of hair with an overall jagged, almost segmented look. She usually has a smug grin and her mouth can look strangely small at times. In addition, she has a small pair of cat's ears poking from her head and a long black cat's tail.

Her outfit, unlike the others, is not tailored by Zero (Due to Absynth refusing her help), and has instead been modified by Absynth herself to represent the Crossbones and their aesthetic. On her head she wears a black, somewhat loose bandana whose end flies in the wind around her oftentimes, as well as a pair of strange mechanical devices over her ears that almost look like pucks, and have had crosses scratched into their sides. These devices can extend a glowing red holographic array over her eyes that allows her to scan her enemies for their Innate Strength - which, while not perfect, is still quite valuable. On her chest she wears a simple black breastplate with prominent, blocky green shoulder plates and golden, almost grid-like patterns on the abs, and she's also crudely painted a green Crossbones cross over the center of the chest area. Underneath this she wears a simple black shirt of an advanced, durable material that's had its sleeves ripped off, leaving rough short sleeves at her shoulders. On her forearms she wears simple gold and black pads as well as black, rubbery gloves with cut off fingers. She has a green, ragged sash around her waist, of which there are two armor "flaps" of sorts on her thighs, green and gold in coloration, while she has a pair of shorts which expose her knees, which she's ritually added cross shaped scars to. Finally, she wears a pair of black, gold, and green armored boots over her feet.

Her invitation read: "Woefully underestimated Absynth of Ethynia, we hereby invite you to the Calling, the festival which crosses all worlds. Should you partake of our offer, you shall find new weaklings to crush, worthy battles to test your might, the respect you've been so long denied, and most importantly, a chance to finally surpass the so called 'prince' of your world and prove yourself to be the mightiest of all Ethynians. Sign your name below, and the door shall open for you."